Do you actually "find" fish with a fishfinder?

[djb750]

Yup. All winter long

[NoCAL]

Yup, all the time.
sonar.jpg

[Okie74133]

Seriously? Crowds have screamed the exact same thing for every ievel of electronic 'fish finder'. Cried about flashers, paper graphs, liquid crystal, high def, color, side, down and now forward.

I mark plenty of brush and catch fish. If I see them, most of the time something will bite. If I don't see them, they may still be there and bite. I"m decent with my side scan. But I have scanned docks and not marked a fish. Ready to bypass it, when a buddy says, let's skip under there and see. Bam. Fish on. But the electronic help and give me confidence.

I'm sure there were naysayers with previous electronics, but at no time in my life have I heard it as loud as it has been with FFS, Not even close. I don't remember pros lobbying for the other stuff to be made illegal. Also, you referenced side scan while my comments were only Scott downward facing sonar.

[Okie74133]

What he meant was if you are using DI, SI and 2D and it is not helping you find and catch fish, you are using DI, SI and 2d wrong.

If all you do is bank beating, all you need is a GPS to find your way home in the fog.

lol, haven't been lost yet. I'll beat the banks until they stop producing fish.

[Bassin Bob71]

I’ve caught a few fish that I’ve seen on 2D sonar, especially deep fish. But, I mostly use 2D to find the kinds of places that fish are likely to be.

This^^^^ I find the type of structure fish relate to with 2D sonar

[csurp]

Yup, all the time.
sonar.jpg

Love me some green fish on a jigging spoon!! Quite awhile ago on an HDS 5 Gen2.

[NoCAL]

Mine were spots. I couldn’t get a spoon all the way down without getting bit. Went on for about 10 minutes then poof, they were gone.

NoCAL

[Highcentered]

I've caught thousands that were located on 2d. Deeper spotted bass caught right under the boat is one of my favorite ways to fish. FFS just makes them easier to find with less meandering around. So easy at times it feels illegal, lol.

[Marmooskapaul]

Every fish I've caught through the ice since about 1996...lol. Vast majority bluegill. Using flasher.

[gatrboy52]

If you're a bank beater down scan for the most part not going to help you find fish. If you're fishing brush piles, shell beds humps, drops ledges or looking for bait balls or schools.of fish then it's invaluable.

[svh]

Yes, many hundreds .....

This is one of my favorite techniques. Fish The Moment, and others have many helpful videos on this very topic. Check you tube.

[plowjock]

2D best way to find structure and Bait fish.
Follow the structure and sure enough dinner will appear.
All this fancy FFS is glorified structure fishing up close and personal.

[RazorCat]

No. When you fish from 1’ to 6’ or so 95% of the time then 2d is best considered a “depth finder”.

[boneil]

Yes.

Sometimes when I'm striper fishing I will cruise around until I see a fish on the DI or SI and then cast at it. Other times, I'll fish a location and can watch a fish swim under, cast and catch.

Whats really fun is when you see a pack of smallies or stripers on the units. You know it's about to get crazy.

[basscatlildave]

NO

[Crappie Bob]

I have, I keep the "A" Scope on with my Garmins. That setting shows you what is directly under the transducer at that second and has been helpful for Crappie fishing.

[CaymasRodney]

YES, we used it a lot finding fish plus seeing them, it was a tool just like FFS is today, especially on Ky Lake where we fish out in the middle all the time.

[cubswin]

Yes, bass and crappie when fishing offshore.

Fishing visible shoreline cover rarely look at the screen.

[Thamelau]

I'm sure there were naysayers with previous electronics, but at no time in my life have I heard it as loud as it has been with FFS, Not even close. I don't remember pros lobbying for the other stuff to be made illegal. Also, you referenced side scan while my comments were only Scott downward facing sonar.

Has social media ever been such a big presence with any other rollout? It gives everyone a platform to scream their opposition from.

[Milehibird]

Yep. Love catching spaghetti. Learned how to dropshot that way. Found a school of "something" suspending in abut 20-25' over 35'. Dropped a dropshot down, caught one, a perch. Caught another, crappie. Dropped through and all the way to the bottom, started catching bass, largemouth and smallmouth. I really need to go back to fishing that way.